Roulette

"Mother, I'm too fat to go clothes shopping! I need to lose ten pounds first, please?" Angelica was in full teenage whining mood, again. This was normal for the girl but in contrast to many parents who would have been driven mad by it, her mother smiled serenely and disagreed.

"Dear, you are perfect size 12. I know that in all those silly magazines your friends share everyone should be a size 3 or smaller, but on your skeleton that would be emaciated. Now stop trying to come up with excuses. We're going to buy you a party outfit and you're going to wear it to your graduation party at the Moose Lodge with all the rest of your class."

"I don't want to go to the Moose Lodge party. I want to go to one of my friend's party's. Mother, can't you understand? I'm eighteen, after all."

"And you don't have a job and you still live at home so you still go where you're sent and do what you're told. House rules, Angie, and you know them as well as I do. Besides, in spite of what your dreams, all of your friends will be at the party as well. No one is having an alternate party, you can be sure of that. Your grandparents all attended the traditional party, your father and I both attended the party and so will you. The subject is now closed. Get in the car."

Mrs. Redpath picked up her keys, slung her purse over shoulder and held open the door in a way that promised that while she was being civil about the entire thing now, incivility was a definite option. Angelica sighed and got in the car. The next day at school Angie and her best friend Sylvia Anderson were commiserating. "My parents were adamant," Sylvia pouted. "I wasn't even allowed to negotiate. All I wanted was to have a dozen of us over for a barbecue and maybe some dancing but you'd think I was planning a drunken orgy. The only way we're going to avoid going to that dumb Moose Lodge party will be to run away from home."

"Mother took me clothes shopping for the party," Angie replied morosely, "and you wouldn't believe what she decided I should wear. She hasn't chosen my clothes since I was 12 but she marched me into this shop over in Colbyville I'd never seen before, talked to the owner and then told me to put on what that woman pulled off the rack. My God, it's nearly skin-tight, cut to the waist in front and almost shows my butt-crack in the back! Once they got done pinning and tucking . . . it looks like it was put on with an airbrush. What is Mother thinking?"

Sylvia's jaw dropped. "You, too? I waspoured into a jumpsuit. I have to wear a push-up bra under it and totter around in heels so high I'll probably get a nosebleed. I thought it was only my mother who'd lost her mind, but it sounds like yours is just as bad. Has there been some change in the water supply or something?"

As graduation approached, similar stories circulated among the girls in the small senior class. Something had definitely affected the normally staid mothers of the little town, something that dumbfounded their daughters. The Moose Lodge was known as a place for the community's adults to gather. Most weekend nights the parking lot would be full and polka music would be echoing across the fields that surrounded it. Youth who were raised on iPods and MP-3 players cringed at the idea that their parents still listened to the Yowpers and bounced around a dance hall to the strains of an oompah band or, worse yet, accordions. What that hokey place could possibly have in common with outrageously sexy outfits baffled everyone. What in the world was going on?

Naturally, the boys were completely oblivious to the girls' distress. Their end-of-year concerns revolved around jobs, the military or, in the case of one of them, college. Springsview, unlike many towns its size seemed unusually able to hang on to its young people. Farms weren't locked into the kind of commodity crops that forced others to expand or die. Instead, they concentrated on specialties that allowed families to continue farming the same land their forbearers had owned for generations while remaining profitable. Businesses didn't succumb to giant box stores in the next town because the residents wouldn't shop outside of town unless they had to. Besides, there were always places for ambitious youngsters to prosper without moving to the big city. It was an anomaly that puzzled state officials but one that was appreciated. To the boys of the Class of '09, it was normal. The town took care of its own. It always had and they didn't see any reason why that should change.

The girls had a different take on things. "We just have to get out of here," Kirsten Van Daam was holding forth in the cafeteria on her favorite subject. "Springsview is stuck in the past. Women all get married and have babies while the men work. This isn't what's supposed to happen in today's America. We need to have careers, too. I mean, Angie, look at your mother. No matter who's fighting whom, once she gets them together they're friends again an hour later. She's a genius who could have made a fortune as a negotiator or an arbitration attorney. But what is she instead? A pretty mother of three kids with a husband who does everything she says. That is just so . . . so . . . June Cleaver!"

Angelica had to admit that Kirsten had a point. Her mother ruled her household and all the ones around her with a warm, loving, but very firm hand. If there was a matriarch in Springsview, it was her mother, Evelyn Redpath. Yet somehow it didn't seem wrong to the girl. Perhaps that was the glue that held Springsview together, this band of confident, unswerving women who all went to church together, mid-wifed each other, supported each other and managed their extremely contented husbands. How did they do it, now that she came to think about it?

That night she raised the question. "Mom, why didn't you go to college? You're one of the smartest people I know. You should have been a lawyer or something."

Evelyn looked up from the desktop where she was settling the family accounts. "Why didn't I go to college? Angie, I'm not a natural academic. For people who are, like Kirsten, four years in the university is an excellent idea. However, books and research never interested me all that much. I'd rather just live quietly here in Springsview and be as helpful as I can to my neighbors. That seemed like a perfectly satisfying life when I was your age and it still does, now. Wouldn't it appeal to you?"

Angelica had been expecting an answer more like "there wasn't the money, then" or "your grandfather felt that college was for boys." Having her wise, witty mother say upfront that she hadn't gone to college because she didn't want to, required a few minutes to process.

"You didn'twant to go to college?"

"No. I wanted to marry your father and have you, Tony and Edward. That's what I wanted and that's what I did. I was much more certain of myself then than you are. You see, my mother ailing when I was eighteen. I needed to take her place in the community as early as I could. Fortunately, she recovered fully but by then I had essentially replaced her, letting her and Daddy do the traveling they dreamed of. That reminds me. They called this morning from Lisbon and want me to wish you a very happy graduation. Have you decided what you want as a graduation present?" The sudden change of subject threw Angie off her line of thought and reminded her that she hadn't given the question any consideration. This was understandable, as she had spent so much time and emotional energy trying to get out of the traditional party. Since it was now clear that she, and all of her friends, would be going to the Moose Lodge whether they wanted to or not, it was time think seriously about just what she should ask for.

All the girls that the teachers called "Kirsten's posse" were sitting under a large sycamore on the lawn in front of their red stone high school. The day was warm enough that socks and shoes were shed until the next period and a few discrete buttons had been unfastened. This last may have been due to the subject matter under discussion. It was certainly raising Angelica's temperature! "So, Friday night we all meet at the swimming hole on Sylvia's farm for a chocolate swim. Agreed?" Kirsten, as usual, was dominating the conversation.

The responding agreements came in but a few were hesitant. Talking about skinny-dipping after dark was one thing but actually planning to be naked in the water with boys was another one completely. There was sure to be splashing and ducking and that much hands-on contact might just lead to other things that not all of the girls were sure they were ready for.

Sylvia tried to put a brave face on things and challenged Kirsten. "Have you decided who you're going to give your first blowjob to, now that you can swallow a banana whole?"

Kirsten stuck her nose in the air. "My first blowjob was Eliot Campbell after he threw that winning pass at the homecoming game. This one will be at least my twentieth. Who's going to get yours?"

Sylvia backed down immediately. It was true that they'd all dared each other into learning to swallow a whole banana. After all, they had become convinced that the day would doubtless arrive when they'd either want or need to get a date off without sacrificing their virginity. Sylvia however, had yet to get up the nerve to put the skill to practical use. Finding that her friend and role model was already an accomplished fellatrix left her feeling chastened and slightly left out.

"I haven't decided," she stammered, "but I'll definitely know when the time comes." Angelica kept quiet. The day before her mother had caught her in the kitchen with a peeled Chiquita slipping down her throat. She'd gulped desperately and then gasped for air while trying to imagine some excuse for what she was obviously doing. She feared the worst but, to her surprise, Evelyn had given her a big hug and kissed her soundly on the cheek. "My little girl is growing up, I see. That wasn't a very big banana but you took it down very nicely. I remember doing the very same thing at your age and I think it's something that every girl should know how to do. Now, just remember that when the time comes it is very bad manners to choke or spit his semen out. If you want to please him enough that you're going to deep throat him, you should want to please him enough to swallow. It's only a tablespoon or so, after all." And with that Evelyn had bounced out the door with the egg basket in hand headed for the hen house. Angelica goggled. Her mother approved of oral sex. That was as hard to accept as the day she'd realized the fact that her parents had had at least enough sex to produce three children. Obviously, that was something that parents did, otherwise they wouldn't be parents but the image of her mother on her knees in front of her father sucking and licking astonished, just astonished. After all, this was hermother!

"Oh Kirsten, you're such a slut." Heather Bocker's voice brought Angie back to the present. "And the best part is that you're proud of it!" "Got it in one," was the saucy response, "and I'm going to be the best piece of tail at college, too. You watch!"

Friday night found Angie and Heather in a battered pickup bouncing down a dirt road at the back of the Anderson farm. Their goal was where the local stream widened into a wide, calm pool that at this time of the year was about six feet deep. Neither of them was speaking. Instead, they were chewing on their lower lips trying to come up with something to say, but without success. When they arrived at the pond, music was playing on Elliot's car radio and there was giggling and whispered chatter from below the bank. Both girls breathed deeply and climbed out to work their way down to the bushes that surrounded the pool.

"Hey, you're finally here!" Dalton Corby's shy smile shone in the moonlight. "Come on in. The water's warmer than we expected. It's really nice," and with that he surface dove flashing his white buttocks for a second in the process.

Angelica crouched down in the bushes to strip and tuck her clothes into the bag she'd brought along for the purpose. Wrapping a large towel around herself, she slipped down next to the water's edge and then in the blink of an eye hung it over a protruding branch and jumped in. When she surfaced, she noticed that most of the group was still divided by sex with the boys splashing and horsing around while the girls kept well down in the water with only their heads visible. A few quick strokes brought her over into the girls' area.

"Where's Kirsten?" she asked Sylvia. "Has she started handing out blowjobs, yet?"

"Maybe more than that," was the giggled answer. "She and Elliot disappeared just before you two rolled up. How long does it take to get your cherry popped, I wonder?"

"Jeez, I hope they brought some rubbers along. Getting knocked up could put a real damper on her career plans."

Just then there was a splash next to her and Dalton surfaced. "Uh—hi, Angie."

She waited a moment for him to continue but when nothing more was forthcoming, she smiled in reply, "Hi to you, too, Dalt. Have you been diving down and perving all the girl's butts? I know you've been too deep to be ogling our boobs."

Dalton blushed so hard that his face looked darker in the sliver light. "I . . . I'm just diving. I like slipping along the bottom."

Angie made a sudden decision and stepped forward. "Is that because the mud feels sexy?" she whispered hoarsely into his ear. Dalton was a favorite of hers. He lived down the road from their farm and was known as the local eccentric artist. Not that he was seriously odd or an outsider of any sort but he was shy. His prowess as a distance runner qualified him as an athlete and 'regular guy', but mostly he stayed in his jury-rigged studio in the hayloft and turned out landscapes and wildlife studies that were the talk of the county.

Angie reached under the water to slide her fingers down his belly. Her mother approved of oral sex, did she? Then maybe it was time to put that banana practice to work. "Why don't you rub my ass a little, Dalton, and I'll make you feel better than some slimy old mud." As she whispered, her hand wrapped itself around his 'package', a good-sized one, by the feel of it.

Dalton goggled in response. "Angie, I don't have any condoms! I didn't think . . ."

"Just feel me up, Dalton; no one has ever done that. And we don't need condoms, not for what I've got planned." She bit down on his earlobe and smiled in satisfaction at the combination of gasp and moan it elicited.

Then it was her turn to moan as long, slender fingers wrapped around each buttock and pulled her close. Dalton began to stiffen under her fingers and he reached up to grab her hair and to pull her face around for a deep probing kiss.

"Psst! Hey, you two, go find a shadow. You're right out in the moonlight." Sylvia's whisper was urgent. The couple looked up but instead of seeing an eager audience discovered that most of the rest of the group was engaged the way they were.

Just then, Sylvia squeaked as Arthur Conroy, the sole unattached male in the group came up behind her, pinned her arms at her sides and palmed a generous breast with each hand.That takes care of her, Angie thought, and returned her attention to Dalton

The kisses were torrid, a word she had just learned the month before from a novel she'd borrowed from Heather. Either such things were instinctive or she and Dalton had been reading the same steamy paperbacks. They sucked each other lower lips, dueled with their tongues and clutched and squeezed at each other's anatomy with increasing passion and ferocity.

Soon Angie was panting and a hot, heavy pressure began to spread out from below her belly.I'd better get down on him quick before I can't resist letting him have me!

"Get me over into the shallows, Dalton," Angie murmured, "before I pull you up onto the bank. I just need your cock out of the water."

Dalton backed up until he was sitting on a large boulder that protruded above the surface of the pool and leaned back onto his arms in response to Angie's pressure on his chest. She slithered up his thighs, looked up with a wink and began to flick her tongue on the frenulum on the underside of his helmet. After a few minutes of that, long, slathering licks ran up and down the shaft, just like the ones on the video the girls had all watched one pajama party. It had been very instructional. Angie wondered who'd brought it and where they got it. After the last few days' revelations, she wasn't sure she really wanted to find out.

Dalton's heavy breathing and low murmurs told her it was time to go for the gold. A deep breath, a huge swallow and he went all the way in. Angie was amazed to find that her nose was pressed into his pubic hair with far less effort than she'd feared. This is easy! She thought and began to bob her head. Bob, inhale, bob, exhale. She could do that but she found that she had to hold Dalton's thighs down. He kept trying to thrust upwards into her face and spoiling her rhythm.

Suddenly he groaned and she felt warmth explode down her throat as he shot his load into her. She stayed there as the twitching declined until she had to withdraw and gasp for air. She'd done it and, from the response of her partner, done it pretty well, thank-you very much. The next thing she knew, she was pulled clear of the water up onto his chest and kissed again, hot and heavily.

"Angie, I don't know what made you do that but . . . but . . . thank-you . . . thank-you, so much. I'll remember that for the rest of my life."

Angelica smiled secretly to herself. She'd done it, she really had. Now she could date as wildly as she wanted and still be a virgin on her wedding night . . . if she wanted to be, that is.

At lunch Monday, the girls were doing their best innocent poker faces when Kirsten walked in and sat down with a very faraway look. She chewed her food absently, staring off into space without a word. Just about the time Angie was about to wave a hand in front of her face, she put her fork down and turned to her friends.

"Guys, we're being set up. I can feel it in my bones. Something is going on but I don't know what."

"What do you mean?" Now all the girls were talking at once.

"Saturday morning," Kirsten began, "I came out for breakfast. Okay, I was late but that's nothing new on Saturday, yanno? I was pouring milk on my cereal when Mother came into the kitchen, looked me in the eye, and grinned. Then she poured me a glass of orange juice and handed me a pill. She told me to take it. She told me to take it twice, so I did. When I asked what that was all about, she grinned and told me it was a 'morning after' pill. I was just—just stupefied, I guess. Before I could ask why she gave me that she burst out laughing and said that all I had to do was go look in a mirror. Any grown woman would know in an instant what I'd done, and that it was about time—about time? I thought we were sneaking around to go get it on with the boys and . . ."

"Our mothers are taking it all in, just like they did with our first steps, our first words, our first training bras and everything else." Angelica said, putting two and two together. "I'm beginning to have real questions about this party at the Moose Lodge. Yesterday I even called my aunt Betty and asked her point blank about it and she point blank told me I'd find out when I got there. Uh, is anyone getting fed birth control pills?"

The girls looked from one to another but all the responses were negative. No one had gotten that far. Heather timidly raised her voice, "I have heard that those things can reduce your libido. Do you suppose that might be why none of our mothers has even mentioned them? I mean, I thought it was because we were supposed to just say no until marriage. Aren't we?"